Man charged in 'mercy killing' set for sentencing

PHOENIX -- George Sanders appeared frail and tired in the hours after he shot his ailing elderly wife in the head, wrapped in a blanket as he sat being questioned by a detective.

"She never wanted to outlive me and be left at the mercy of someone else," Sanders tells a Maricopa County sheriff's detective in an interrogation recorded the day his wife, Virginia Sanders, 81, was found shot in the couple's home.

"We loved each other so much," Sanders said. "It was a wonderful life in spite of all the hard things we had at the end."

The 86-year-old was initially charged with first-degree murder for the Nov. 9 shooting of his wife but later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in what attorneys on both sides have called a "mercy killing."

Sanders could face probation or up to 12 1/2 years in prison at his sentencing hearing Friday. His attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

The World War II veteran told authorities his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1969, and the couple moved from Washington state to the retirement community of Sun City outside Phoenix about seven years later for the warm, dry climate as she was now in a wheelchair.

"We did a lot of things together, always loved each other," he told the detective, adding that her health began to deteriorate over the last few years.

"I took care of her through that day and night," Sanders said.

Eventually, as his own health deteriorated, he said the couple hired a caregiver.

He said his wife had been diagnosed with gangrene on her foot just a few days before the shooting and was set to be admitted to a hospital, then a nursing home.

"It was just the last straw," Sanders said. "She didn't want to go to that hospital ... start cutting her toes off."

He said he talked it over with his wife and she begged him to kill her.